Results indicate that within the limitations of this study there is evidence that children with superior" intelligence showed more mature response patterns on Piaget-type tasks than children of the same age with average" intelligence test scores. (Author)

Students in seven grade six and eight grade eight classes were involved in this study in which the effect of two versions of the "Mastermind" game on logical reasoning were compared. No differential effects on test performance were found, nor did playing the games promote improved formal reasoning skills. (MNS)

Fifteen third-grade students learned LOGO during the school year. The group who received one hour per week of individual computer time (separate from in-class instruction) did significantly better on a conditional rule-learning task than did students who received one-half hour per week of individual computer time. (GC)

Teacher developed U.S. history curriculum materials involve high school students in analyzing rival historical interpretations. Students learn how to deal with arguments through the booklet "A Guide to Critical Thinking" and then analyze and debate interpretations. Appendices include sample materials and a matrix of content with associated…

Assesses student responses to and evaluates effectiveness of exercises designed to develop critical and analytical reasoning skills in the biological sciences. In answering exercises consisting of problems in a multiple-choice format, students are required to write out justifications for acceptance/rejection of each choice. Significant improvement…

Two experiments tested whether children fail to make transitive inferences because they forget the premises. Children did not justify incorrect inferences by incorrect premises. Results between nontransitive and transitive inferers parallelled similar studies with nonconserver- conserver dyads and were viewed as reinforcing the commonality between…

Three research questions are explored relating the psychological phenomenon of premature closure to (1) age, (2) Piagetian developmental level, and (3) ability to generate hypothetico-deductive strategies. Children (N=141) in grades 1-6 were interviewed and administered light-and-button tasks to describe these relationships. (CS)

Examines the contributions of the "Frankfurt School" members to the development of critical theories of social education in the United States. Drawing from their sociohistorical analyses, Horkheimer, Marcuse, and Adorno theorized that the dominance of scientific, rational thought in the twentieth century was leading to highly technological,…

This study designed to use Piagetian logical operations and open-ended, clinical interviews to collect data amenable to a developmental analysis of children's levels of understanding of specific science topics: gravity, energy, and magnetism. Results indicated a correspondence between a child's overall cognitive development and the specific…

Two teaching ideas that focus on baseball are presented with a poster provided for each. The first activity features baseball applications of addition, subtraction, and number concepts. The second uses a baseball setting with logic-oriented problems. (MP)

Reports on an experiment involving university level foreign students and using construction kits to test their ability to write technical instructions. Students worked in small groups at different kits, with the objective of producing verbalizations of assembly diagrams accurately enough to enable others to repeat the construction process without…

Third- and seventh-grade and college students were tested to assess developmental differences in improvement following contradiction training and to investigate whether improved performance transfers to other conditional reasoning tasks. Results showed age differences: college students improved and transferred performance, seventh graders…